Never before in the history of the IIHF World Championship has a team had a five-goal lead and failed to win in regulation time. Canada was up 6-1 on Austria after two periods but failed to close it out, giving up five goals on nine shots in the third period – largely due to turnovers and odd-man rushes.
After the game, there was understandable euphoria on the Austrian side, and a few Canadian players tried to explain what happened. The game-winning goal captain John Tavares scored just 15 seconds into overtime to salvage two points caused some solace.
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“A lot is going to be made about the third period, and rightfully so,” said Tavares, who also had an assist earlier in the game. “It wasn’t very good and any time you give up five goals, it’s not a good thing. We did a lot of good things for the first 40 minutes and we’ve just got to correct our mistakes and know we’ve got to play through the momentum of another team when they start creating chances. They upped their speed and their pressure, so we’ve got to do a better job managing the game and managing the lead. It’s good we get the win, but obviously a wake-up call for us.”
“It’s absolutely unacceptable to let that happen,” said Dylan Cozens, who scored a goal for Canada. “When you’re up that many goals, you’ve got to close it out and that’s something we didn’t do. We let them think they were in it and we let them back in it.”
“It’s hockey, we were playing against a good team and we kind of fell apart a little bit there,” said Connor Bedard, who scored his fifth goal of the tournament in the game. “We know that can’t happen but in the end, I think the adversity can be good for our group.”
As for what caused the problems in the third period, Bedard said, “It was just little breakdowns. We’ll clean that up for the next game.”
“We might have thought that we were just going to walk through that third period easily and win, and it goes to show what happens when you think like that,” said Cozens. “At the same time, it’s a learning experience and I think it’ll help us in the long run. And at the end of the day, we won.”
Explaining his overtime goal, Tavares said, “We did a good job winning the faceoff and built some speed. I saw I had a little bit of space and tried to come in and attack through the middle of the ice, saw the short side on the goalie and just hit my spot.”
“That was big,” said Cozens. “It’s awesome to have a player like that in our lineup. He did what a captain should do and delivered when we needed it. It was a great goal and that’s what you look for in a leader.”
“He’s scored a couple of goals in the show, right?” said Bedard. “We expected him to do that when he got on the ice. Not surprised at all. That’s why he is who is and why he’s wearing the ‘C’ for us.”